MEPs and stakeholders acknowledged that tourism is one of the biggest drivers for growth in Europe and a key provider of new jobs.
BRUSSELS – In an event co-hosted yesterday by MEP Ana-Claudia Tapardel and MEP Istvan Ujhelyi in the presence of Vice-President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani, MEPs from various political groups and tourism stakeholders agreed that an intergroup on tourism is needed to bring coherence to the European Parliament’s work on tourism and foster growth and jobs creation.
MEPs and stakeholders acknowledged that tourism is one of the biggest drivers for growth in Europe and a key provider of new jobs. As it makes an overall contribution of 9% to the EU’s GDP and employs 10% of the total EU workforce, Vice-President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani stressed that “Tourism is essential for Europe’s competitiveness and must remain at the core of the political agenda”.
MEPs and stakeholders also agreed that the creation of an intergroup on Tourism would allow the European Parliament to adopt a more holistic and coherent approach to the Parliament’s tourism work. This would also maximise its impact on Europe’s competitiveness.
“Thousands of jobs are created every year in this sector, and still the European Parliament work on tourism lacks coherence. We need an intergroup to tackle this” commented Kent Nystrom, President of HOTREC, the trade association representing the European hospitality industry.
“The Tourism sector is the industry of Peace. Unfortunately, many policy issues with a direct impact on tourism are not falling within the competence of the TRAN (Transport & Tourism) Committee. An intergroup with MEPs from various committees is needed to adopt coherent policies”, explained MEP Istvan Ujhelyi, Vice-Chair of the TRAN Committee.
“Given the wide cross-party support received so far from many MEPs, I am glad to call on the various political groups of the European Parliament to now provide their official endorsement for the creation of this intergroup” concluded MEP Ana-Claudia Tapardel.
The establishment of an intergroup requires the support of at least 3 political groups. Political groups will vote on their priority list of intergroups in November, for a final approval in December.
The Data Protection Officer is a burden for SMEs and therefore should not be made compulsory, HOTREC says.
HOTREC call the Justice and Home Affairs Council not to make the Data Protection Officer compulsory, at least not for SMEs, whose core business is not data processing. Ahead of the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting taking place on 9 and 10 October 2014, HOTREC and UEAPME call on the Council not to make it compulsory for companies to have a Data Protection Officer, especially not for SMEs, if the company’s core business is not data processing.
“The economic and administrative burden that the Data Protection Officer would imply would be simply unbearable for SMEs to handle in the current times of crisis. The fee of hiring an external DPO can easily amount up to €12.000€ per year. And even if the company attributes the task to an internal employee, this person will be spending a substantial amount of time in order to be specialised on a topic that is redundant to the company, as a small hotel or restaurant core business is not data processing”, stressed Christian de Barrin, CEO of HOTREC.
“New legislation should avoid any additional burdens to SMEs, as they are the backbone of European economy. Let’s not forget the “Think Small First principle” and the proportionality principle. The only decisive facts to take into account should relate to the categories of data being processed and the type of processing activities” highlighted UEAPME Secretary General, Peter Faross.
Therefore, HOTREC and UEAPME call on the Council to:
- Keep the designation of the DPO optional;
- Ensure that SMEs employing less than 250 employees and whose core activity is not data processing are not obliged to designate a DPO.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
